Safety features top car buyers' list of priority technologies

By Anna Vega

Published Thursday, May 9, 2013

New accident prevention technologies will make driving safer is the belief of 96.5 per cent of consumers, according to an independent survey of 1,000 new car buyers carried out by CarSafetyRules.com in the UK.

Further, 40 per cent of those surveyed believe such features will improve safety “considerably”.

The survey asked people who had bought a brand new car in the last three years about their attitudes to technologies, brands and safety

Three-quarters said they understood the safety technologies in the car before driving away. Despite a high proportion of cars being sold now having a five-star Euro NCAP rating, buyers do their own research into safety before buying a car.

“The technologies that buyers said they would most like to have on their next new car were autonomous emergency braking and pre-crash alerts, with 49.9% of people selecting these options in the survey, “ says CarSafetyRules editor Tristan Honeywill, who commissioned the survey.

“The survey didn’t examine pricing, but offering these technologies either as standard or as options is a clear benefit for many consumers,” Honeywill continues.

Reasons behind people predominantly focusing on a car’s safety features were most commonly down to a crash, near-miss or witnessing an accident on a familiar road, . with 40.6 pre cent citing such reasons. Another common factor for increased safety awareness was becoming a parent, in 18.6 per cent of cases.

Recent safety campaigns had influnced 15.2 per cent of consumers to rate safety highest, while bad winter driving conditions were a cause for alarm for 10.9 per cent of respondents.

Only 12.5 per cent indicated that they had no interest in learning more about safety technologies.

Other technologies were deemed less important. Smart phone-related technologies, for example, were viewed as being a distraction for 67.2 per cent of respondents, yet 27.8 per cent of consumers still considered the technology to be a desirable feature in a car. Some thought smart phone connectivity could make driving safer, represented by 11 per cent.

Around 12 per cent were simply uninterested in having any new technologies in their next car.

The possibility of having an autonomous driving feature in their next car was of interest to only 15.5 per cent of consumers. However, around half those surveyed - 52.3 per cent- said that they would be happy to commute in a self-driving car, with the popularity higher in big cities.